Help to Buy Should Be Dubbed Help to Vote

Help to Buy should be dubbed Help to Vote. George Osborne has promised his party to deliver half a million "hard-working" electors from the dungeons of housing debt to the sunny uplands of Help to Buy. He would shower them with £12 billion of other people's money. He could summon the spirits of Toryism past, but will they come?  The coalition's Help to Buy policy has about as many friends as the Iraq war. With house prices heading back to their 2009 peak, throwing subsidies at the soft underbelly of housing demand looks crazy. Osborne is creating a potential "bad bank" stacked with what, by definition, are marginal mortgages. The IMF, the Institute of Directors, the Commons Treasury committee, the former governor of the Bank of England and every economic commentator thinks the policy is mad. Vince Cable puts his finger to his temples. Business investment is still a third below its pre-recession level. Why spend billions on the one sector that seems not to need it?  Read more on the Guardian website.